the lowest of them all, for as the world is spherical, the sky,
which contains all things, can reasonably be said to have the highest
position. The earth being in the midst everywhere is below what
surrounds it. This the poet declares chiefly in the lines where he says
if Zeus let a chain down from Olympus, he could turn over the land and
sea so that everything would be in the air (I. viii. 23):--

But if I choose to make my pow'r be known,
The earth itself and ocean I could raise,
And binding round Olympus' ridge the cord
Leave them suspended so in middle air.

Although the air is around the earth, he says the ether is higher in the
following lines (I. xiv. 287):--

And going up on a lofty pine, which then grew on the summit
of Ida and through the air reached into the ether.

But higher than the ether is heaven (I. xvii. 424):--

And thus they fought: the iron clangor pierc'd
The airless ether and brazen vault of Heaven.

And, besides, in the following (I. i. 497):--

The vapor ascended to the great heaven and to Olympus.

The top part of the air is finer and more distant from the earth and its
exhalations. Therefore it is said Olympus is called "wholly shining."
Where the poet says Hera is the wife of Zeus, although she is his
sister, he seems to speak in an allegory, since Hera stands for the air,
which is a humid substance. Therefore he says (I. xxi. 6):--

Hera spread before their path clouds of thick darkness.

By Zeus is signified the ether, that is the fiery and heated substance
(I. xv. 192):--

Broad Heav'n amid the sky and clouds, to Jove.

They seem brother and sister on account of a certain likeness and
relationship, because both are light and mobile; they dwell together and
are intimate, because from their intercourse all things are generated.
Therefore they meet in Ida, and the land produces for them plants and
flowers.

The same explanation have those words in which Zeus says he will, hang
Hera and fasten two weights to her feet, namely, the land and the sea.
He works out especially the principles of the elements in what Poseidon
says to him (I. xv. 187):--

We were brethren, all of Rhaea born
To Saturn: Jove and I and Pluto third,
Who o'er the nether regions holds his sway,

and (I. xv. 189):--

Threefold was our partition: each obtain'd
His meed of honor due.

And in the division of the whole, Zeus obta